And for today’s festival of fun, we head on over to sunny Sweden, home of the once famed Swedish stewardesses the likes of Austin Powers and Willie Aames of Charles in Charge fame used to go on about all the time. You know, Christina Lindberg, Marie Lildejahl, Scorpio Films, Joe Sarno, Ingmar Bergman…

…well, okay, maybe one of those isn’t exactly a tight fit with the others, but you get the idea.

Well, one year on and the tide would seem to finally be turning. The wheels of progress move too damn slowly, sometimes, but at least they’re back trying to move after far too many months in utter stasis (if not a horrifying, Lovecraftian regress).

Ever since our March Roundup arrived a week early, the virtual desk has been awash with one hopefully amenable if not awesome release after another (yes, you can tell the introduction’s being written before diving into all of this stuff…).

In point of fact, there are so many new labels and bands, not to mention a few returning champions here and there, that this may actually be the largest review cycle to date. And being the glutton for punishment that I am, I say, keep ’em coming, folks.

Postscript: a few weeks later and about 80% of the reviews complete, all I can say is there must be something in the air. Not only have there been a veritable landslide of releases to cover this month, but – and no, we haven’t gone soft all of a sudden – a surprising number of them are actually good. And I mean across all genres.

Say what the f***?!?

Must be something going down, and it ain’t with us…

And when we find ourselves giving the nod to bands previously and deservedly slagged mercilessly…all we can do is shake our heads in pleased disbelief.